Summer Update!

I've decided to stop apologizing for the lack of posts. I feel guilty, but obviously not even those feelings of guilt have changed the amount I actually get on here. I'm pretty sure you're sick of hearing me say I'm going to try to be better and then not. So I've decided I'll blog when I can or when I feel like it and that will be that! Sorry to disappoint, but aren't blogs about the blogger anyway? I'll just tell myself it means I'm not very self centered (yeah right). Anyway, if you are still curious about what I've been up to this summer, here's a glimpse!

A couple weekends ago I went with a big group of friends to Palmyra New York for the Hill Cummorah Pageant! It was a long and tiring trip but very much worth it. Other than Sharon VT last Sept. it was my first visit to a church history site! My favorite part was the Sacred Grove, even though I got really sick afterward from lack of sleep and food. It was beautiful and peaceful and I can't believe it's still there! The Pageant was also really great. Not at all what I was expecting, it had more dancing and less dialogue, but I really enjoyed it. Even despite being rained on while enjoying it.

Our camping group:Erica, Cameron, John, Laura, Kylee, Lora, me, Ben and Jared!!

This is from the Smith Family Log Cabin. In this room is where the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith during the night. It was great to visit all these sacred sites.

This is the fireplace in the Smith Frame House where the gold plates were hidden for a time from a mob. Later they kept them in the box on the dresser in the room below.


The Sacred Grove was such a peaceful, beautiful place.


The weekend after that was Harry Potter craziness!! I can't believe that book 7 is finally here! I got a huge group of friends together for the book release party that they had in Harvard Sq. There were so many people it was crazy! I finally dressed up, and I wasn't the only one. In fact, every person in our group dressed up! I made Gryffindor Quidditch Team T-Shirts for people the night before and they turned out great. Check 'em out! We ate good food, listened to some interesting "Wizard Rock" and then got in line for the release. Natalie, Mike and I waited for an hour outside the store, then stormed the doors with the rest of the crowd and managed to make it in around 37th into the store, where we waited another hour and half until they started selling the book at midnight! By 12:04 I had two copies in hand (one for a friend who couldn't wait in line... I'm nice like that) and we were greeted by a huge crowed outside the store taking our pictures and cheering! It was amazing. I read until 4 in the morning then got up on Sat. and read all day and finished Sunday night at 7! I can't believe it's all over. Overall I enjoyed the book. I was disappointed by the Epilogue, I wanted more info, but Jo's been pretty good about answering questions now that everything is over. I'm thinking about planning a "Support Potter Party" in honor of the end, just as a last hurrah and for people to come talk about the final book, I'll be sure to keep people informed if it happens!


At dinner with Ben, Nicole, Lora, Jared, Angela, Anna, Riva, Cameron, Natalie and Mike!

Hey look! It's Luna and Ginny! Well, almost. Natalie poses with me as I try my best "Looney" Lovegood look.

Trisha dressed as Professor Sprout (she's a Hufflepuff), her cousin was Ginny and Anglea was Cho Chang! The concert was going on behind us, tons of fun!

And here we have the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team: Harry, I mean, Mike, Adam, Cameron, Jared, Ben with Natalie and Lora! Everybody loved the shirts.

On to other fun adventures this summer! This last week was great. On Tuesday I attended "Shakespeare on the Common" the free play they do every year on Boston Common. This year was my favorite, "A Mid Summer Night's Dream". The performance was pretty good overall. Not as good as last year though. Apparently they lost of a lot of funding, so they only did a week and it was a much simpler stage and costuming. The fairy scenes were very... interesting. They danced and sang to techno music and wore really crazy neon spandex feathery costumes. Yeah, interesting. The play within the play at the end was my favorite part, and not just cause that was my part in H.S., it was really clever what they did with it. It had me laughing so hard I couldn't breath!

Here are those psychedelic fairies!

I also saw two movies last week, but I think I'll save it for a movie review post! Ya'll come back soon, ya hear!?

More Updates...

So here are the picture I linked you to, but falied to tell you about from my last post! Forgiveness is a virtue, people!

I'll start off with the 4th of July which was a total blast because 3 of my old roommates from Salt Lake came to visit me! The 4th is amazing in Boston anyway, but it was extra special spending time with my friends and showing them the city I've grown to love over the last year...

The night before they all came in I went to the dress rehearsal of the "Boston Pops Extravaganza" which is a 4th of July tradition. It's easier to get into the concert on the 3rd. We had a huge group from the ward there and had a blast.
With Ben, Leah and Toni.


Then on the morning of the 4th Ben and I picked up Becky and Shannon from the airport and we headed right out to have some fun!
Here we are waiting for the T. Ashlee met up with us later at the Old State House, where we heard the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the same place it was first read in 1776!
The Old State House

Then we walked down to Fanueil Hall and then followed the Freedom Trail through the North End for a bit before heading to a BBQ.

Later that night we met up with a big group to watch the fireworks on the Charles River. It was raining most of the night and getting home was crazy, but the show was a-MA-zing!

Shan and Beck keeping dry under an umbrella and looking patriotic!


Man, we did so much in just a few days that everything is blurring together! We went to a baseball game at Fenway which finally converted me into a baseball fan. I even bought a hat! We ate tons of good food and went shopping. One day we took a trip up to Salem, where we saw some of the witch trial sites with Ben.

This is part of the memorial to the people who were killed during the "Salem Witch Trials".


Me and a fearsome pirate outside of the Pirate Museum. If only I'd had my pirate wench costume...

We headed to the beach next. It was a little overcast, so just Ben got in the water, but we had fun walking along the beach and playing in the waves.

Ben, Becky and Shan chilling on the beach.

The water was beautiful in the almost setting sun.

We perched up on the lifeguards chair for a bit.

Here we are in front of John Harvard's statue after taking a tour of the Library where I work. Thanks again for coming girls! I had so much fun. I hope this inspires others to come visit, or for you to come back again soon! I love showing people the sites!

Other stuff I've been up to:

I went to the midnight showing of "Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix" with a few friends. It was well worth being dead tired the next day! July was the month of Potter for me!

This is from a trip to North Bennet Street School to visit the violin shop with my friend David. He's an amazing violinist who's learning how to make them. Such an intricate process! It made me think of Grandpa Hancock and was so cool see everything and remember him. My new goal is to learn to play the violin, especially since Grandma decided to give me Grandpa's violin. I can't even say how grateful and thrilled I am.
David, the violin maestro.

Laura and Michelle contemplating the shop.

Simply beautiful.

So here's a funny story for you. I started listening to this band a little while ago called "The Click Five". After reading an article saying they lived in Watertown (my little town outside of Boston) I said, hey, that's cool. I wonder if they're any good. Turns out I'd heard them before and I was an instant fan. But wait, the story doesn't stop there, at this time I'd also been looking for housing with 4 friends and we'd had no luck. Until my roommate Lora found this place near where we live now that was big and beautiful. And guess who was living there? Yep, "Click Five". I will admit, this sent me into overdrive with my "admiration" for the band. Maybe getting the chance to look into a rock star's closet is what did it. Anyway, I found some fellow enthusiasts and we went to a free lunch time concert they played in Boston a few weeks ago. We tried to meet them afterward, but they got called away to sign some autographs. Plans to make them cookies before they moved out fell through (luckily) so we weren't able to embarrass ourselves too much. I wish I could have asked Ethan to sign my room or something before he moved out...
Being a groupie at the concert.
Ethan the bassist.
So here the stalker tendencies come out. I'm pretty sure the room I'm getting belonged to Ethan here, because of some family pictures on his dresser. How cool is that? I hope they come back to visit some time... I'm such a nerd.

Well, that's the update for now. Sorry for killing your computer with all the pictures! But I believe in the mantra that a picture is worth a thousand words! At least a thousand of mine...

Coming Soon!

OK, sorry that I keep doing these big posts, and that they've been so infrequent lately! My computer has been so slow it just is such a pain to get it done. So while I'm working on it (yeah, it's a multiple day thing) you can check out some of the pictures I'll be including over at my Flickr account! I'll fill in the details in the next day or so on here, but for now, you can get your visual fix. I really will try to be better. Although I'm not going to make any promises that I can't keep!

Pictures here!!

Playing catch up!

Ok, so you all hate me now, for having to watch that Jane Austen video over for 2 whole months! I'm really sorry for slacking off on blogging for the last little while, but I've been kind of busy and unmotivated to find the time to squeeze in a post. I know that's no excuse, but maybe with the weather getting better, I'll be better about blogging too. But seriously, if I had to leave you with anything, at least it was Austen!

Anyway, there's so much to share from just this past week! I'm finally and Aunt!! Yay! I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be an Aunt. And do you know what the best part is? I got a niece AND a nephew in the same week! Just two days apart! Ok, you can tell I'm really excited when I can't stop using the exclamation points. So I'll try to contain the mirth and show you some pictures of the cuteness that is little Kirsten and Jack.

My sister Lizanne and brand new baby Kirsten Elise! I would post more pics of her, cause she super cute, but I haven't been sent any except in a video (hint, hint).


My brother, Christian, Sister-in-law, Mary and cutie-pie Jack Malcom!

Such a cute little face!


He's going to be a heart-breaker. He's already got the wink down!

Becoming and Aunt is awesome, I just wish I knew when I will finally get to hold them! I don't think I can wait until Christmas.

Here's what else I've been up to in Boston in the last little bit:
(sorry, there's a lot of photos...)

My roommate and some of our friends went out to dinner a couple of months ago to an Ethiopian restaurant and we had a ton of fun! It was just this little restaurant, but it felt like we were in a completlely different world! We sat around these baskets they use as tables, on really cool chairs and then ate with our hands.
Lora and Nicole enjoying Ethiopian Food at Addis- Red Sea.

It was fun to eat with your hands!


Melinda and Cassie shared my basket with me. All our food came with these yummy crepe-like-things that you scooped up the "stew" with. It was a real cultural experience!

After enjoying Ethiopian food, what's better than belting out some songs karaoke style?! We met up after eating with Kylee and Natalie to sing some Karaoke at this place called "Limelight". It was a blast. I was a little scared at first, but after getting up and doing my first song, I was ready for more. In fact, I had so many song choices I couldn't decide what one to do! Guess I'll just have to go back!
Kylee rocking out!

So many choices, so little time...

This was our last number, Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone". The drunk girls in front of the stage there love us!

Kylee, Nat and Lora are super stars!

Next we have some pictures from the play I was in in March, "Savior of the World". If you want, you can see the entire thing on this website.

Some of the friends from my ward who came to one of the performances.

Here were are back stage getting ready to be "Angels" and "Townspeople".

Stephanie and Amanda, two of the awesome young women I got to sing with! It was really fun to be a part of this performance. It was a great testimony builder going and singing everyweek. It was a lot of work, but really worth it. I had a blast.

A couple of weeks ago it was a beautiful Sunday, the lilacs were in bloom and it was "Picnic Day" at the Arboretum. Aparently an arboretum is a tree garden. I had never been there before, so my friend Laura and I decided to go down, spread out a blanket and soak up some sun. We ran into a bunch of other people from our ward who were having a picnic, so we sat around a bit, went to see the lilacs and took a pretty walk back to the car. This place was huge, and I want to go back to explore some more!


Next up, we have Patriot's Day! This was a really fun weekend, except for the Nor'Easter that was ripping through the area. This was also the Boston Marathon weekend. Patriot's Day is a big deal here in Boston, since we are "The Cradle of Liberty". People get all dressed up and reenact the battles of Lexinton and Concord and the Old North Bridge. I'm glad we went to the Minute Man National Park's event on Sat. becuase the Old North Brdige reenactment got canceled on Monday because of the storm. I'm thinking it might be fun to dress up next year! My fellow historian Ben and I went to check it all out and we had fun despite the cold.

When we first got there you could walk around the whole park, go into the buildings and watch the Minute Men get into formation.

Here I am trying out the spinning wheel inside the house.

We went down to check out the British Camp and marched back with them and the cannon, on the way to the big battle!

Here's the British all lined up getting ready to march. Could they stand out anymore? Aparently if you want to join the reenactment as a British soldier it's close to $2000 for the outfit!

At the park, they aren't allowed to actually aim at each other, so they kind of set up where they would have been, but fired in the opposite dirrection from where the Rebels were actually hiding. They also aren't allowed to "die" so we just kind of watched a bunch of guys in red coats running around firing at nothing. The Patriots kept well hidden. I love being in the midst of all this history here in Boston. It's a lot of fun.

Ben hanging with some real Patriots. Seriously, these guys had every little detail of their outfit historicaly acurate. Ben and I were in heaven!


Ok, well that's gonna have to do for now! Whew, kind of a picture overload, huh?! Hopefully I didn't just kill everyone's computer. Because I almost killed mine.
Next post, I'll update you on my Memorial Day Weekend and whatever else I'm up to until then. Sorry this post was a little random, but some of you have been asking for updates, so you got it! I aim to please. But that doesn't mean I always hit the mark!